'Blood Oil' and the Forgotten Master Plan

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua may have made a tactical blunder in tackling the Niger Delta crisis when he reportedly covertly or overtly told the world's richest heads of state at the recent 2008 G8 Summit in Japan of Nigeria's hopelessness in handling the Niger Delta militancy and the country's possible inability to meet its OPEC oil production quota.. The president stopped short of prostrating to the world's richest presidents to intervene in the Niger Delta crisis At the summit, Nigeria's president reportedly quietly informed the United States President, George Bush and his British counterpart, Gordon Brown, of Nigeria's helplessness in tackling the the rising wave of militancy in the Niger Delta.

The president therefore sought international collaboration to address the crisis. He buttressed his call for support on the fact that if there was peace in the Niger Delta region, Nigeria could actually improve its output and help check the rising cost of oil in the international market by providing additional 1.2m barrels of oil per day. Bush and Brown whose countries are heavily dependent on Nigeria's 'sweet crude", like a master to his servant, promised Nigeria's President of a comprehensive military training package for the country with a promise to equip the Nigerian military with enough capability to take on the militants.

Yar'Adua was quoted as telling the key G8 members that Nigeria's militancy was deliberately being fueled by international oil smugglers not only feeding fat on stolen Nigeria oil but were also making the region more dangerous by arming the militants with sophisticated weaponry. President Yar'Adua told the G8 summit that an international cartel of oil smugglers was stealing billions of dollars in "blood oil" from Nigeria.

He compared this illegal trade to that of "blood diamonds" and called for an international effort to stop it. The President, surprisingly, just blamed the Niger Delta problem on militancy and oil thieves; failing rather pathetically to explain to the international community that a well developed Niger Delta Master plan which the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo sunk several billions of Naira to develop was lying down in Aso Rocks' store covered in dust and forgotten. But is it not worrisome that nobody is saying anything about the Master Plan of late. Rather, what we hear is summit and all those funny time wasting agenda designed to buy time and slow development.

The Niger Delta Regional Master Plan was launched in Abuja by the immediate past president, with immense fanfair shortly before he left office. The people of the Niger Delta region joined the federal and state governments to rejoice over the epoch development which many in the region thought was the elixir to cushion their pains. How they were wrong! The Plan like many other blue prints for development of the region was politicized the moment it was unveiled. Many even believe that the Master Plan was not even as practical and straight to the point as most master plans ought to be. If you have gone through the so-called Niger Delta Master Plan you will discover that the whole thing looks like a Sociology text book.

The whole thing is literature! Except the plan I saw was the wrong one. This writer, and perhaps several other people were expecting to see a more practical and graphic oriented master plan which would itemize all creeks in the region and is able to decipher what kind of bridge or road that would be best for the different environments. But I didn't see such in the master plan. The president going to the G8 summit in Japan almost cap in hand, to solicit for assistance from the member nations to tackle the Niger Delta problem, its internal problem, has once again exposed the incompetence tag on Africa by the developed West and the rest of the world on managing their internal crises. It is common to see African leaders running to the West for help for a problem which could have been solved internally if there was some level of patriotism and dedication.

Most of the times these so-called leaders single handedly create these problems and when they snowball out of manageable proportion they start running around the world looking for help. Kenya and Zimbabwe readily come to mind; the political problems in these countries which claimed the lives of many of their poor citizens were clearly created or orchestrated by sit-tight old men who have ruled their countries for many years and shamefully refuse to call it quits even when it is clear that the chips are down! Many Africans including Nigerians are not in support of their leaders running to their former colonial tormentors for help every time there is crisis. Apart from such moves exposing their sovereign corporate secrets as a nation, they clearly convey a sad message to the west that the whole of Africa cannot do without them.

That after several years of independence the continent was still unable to handle such minor issue as militancy and armed robbery. It would be recalled that Yar'Adua had earlier begged Gordon Brown to help train the rusty sticky-fingered Nigeria police men and women. Now he is begging Brown to help him solve the Niger Delta militancy! A lot of stakeholders in the region are of the view that all successive governments in the country since independence have not really made determined effort at addressing the Niger Delta question. The so-called leaders had demonstrated lack of political will to take head on the Niger Delta crisis. They have not really made any formidable effort to begin massive development of the region.

They only beat about the bush, stay in cozy hotels with their girl friends while they blame militants for the under-development in the region. Perhaps, it would not be wrong to say that the federal government may have been deliberately causing part of the confusion in the region through its policy of divide and rule in the Niger Delta. They prefer to gather the people under one roof organizing summits and dialogues because they know that nothing would ever come out of such sessions because all the components that constitute the Niger Delta would never agree with one another on any issue for that matter.

The Niger delta communities are very independent minded that is why for instance the Ogoni and Ijaw or the Itsekiri and Urhobo may not always agree on several issues bordering on the region. The federal government capitalizes on these divides and keep the people on a collusion course with one another so that when this happens they run back to the presidency to say that the people have refused to create a peaceful environment for development to come to the region.

http://www.nigerdel tastandard. com/news/ index9.htm

Posted by Inemo Samiama